Canadians took to the streets on this date in 1945 with the news that World War II was officially over with the surrender of Imperial Japan. More than 40,000 Canadians had paid the supreme sacrifice. Incredibly, more than 1 million of our citizens served in the armed forces during the conflict. Prime Minister Mackenzie King spoke to the press that historic day. ““We must do all we can do toward that end, and the right place to begin is in the attitude of the individual toward others,” he noted. “We must get a new conception of life, a new attitude toward our fellow men,” he said. King also announced that the next day, August 15, would be a national holiday.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.